Around noon, Wanda's parents, Oleg and Elina, returned to the Underground Room with several long loaves of bread.
"You're awake!"
When they saw Hawking awake and chatting with the two children, they were pleasantly surprised.
If Hawking hadn't stopped the missile, they and their two children would have been dead by now.
So, deep down, they were filled with gratitude towards Hawking.
"Thank you for saving me."
Before the two could express their gratitude to Hawking, Hawking, feigning a grateful expression, spoke first:
"I might have hit my head, so I don't remember anything. Wanda said you saved me and brought me back. Thank you so much."
Amnesia activated.
As expected, hearing Hawking's words, the couple first paused, then replied with sympathy:
"It's alright. The war ended last night. The government is organizing rescue efforts and restoring the city's infrastructure.
You can stay here for now. Once order is somewhat restored, we will help you find your family."
At this moment, the couple's minds were already imagining Hawking's background.
Hawking might be a descendant of Chinese immigrants in Sokovia. The war caused him to be separated from his family, and he subsequently suffered some injury and lost his memory.
As for the special abilities he displayed, that was also understandable.
News reports had previously covered Mutants, so perhaps he was a Mutant with special abilities.
Just like their daughter could sometimes make small objects float, and their son ran much faster than normal children.
This little boy saved their family's lives, so they naturally had to take good care of him and do their best to help him find his parents.
"Won't this be too much trouble for you?" Hawking said, feigning a bit of embarrassment.
With the help of Wanda's parents, who were locals, he could temporarily settle down for a period and then diligently improve his strength.
During the time since he had just woken up, besides extracting a lot of information from Wanda and Pietro, he also spent time specifically studying his 'golden finger'.
So far, he could clearly feel that after using the Protagonist Template Load once, although the Protagonist Template had now dissipated, certain things had remained.
Firstly, the most obvious was memory. Son Goku's thirteen years of memories did not disappear with the end of the template load; they all remained in his mind.
Of course, it was just memories, without emotions or anything like that, like having a thirteen-year-long movie added to his brain.
Secondly, he could distinctly feel that his body seemed to have undergone some special change, which should be as previously prompted: after using a Protagonist Template once, he would automatically acquire the same bloodline as the protagonist.
In other words, he now possessed the same Saiyan bloodline as Son Goku.
The most direct evidence was that a tail had also grown out of his backside!
So, even if he didn't use the Protagonist Template later, he could still slowly improve his strength by following the Turtle Hermit Style training methods from his memories.
Moreover, the thirteen-year-old Son Goku was just the first template. As long as he diligently accumulated Justice Points as stated on the panel, he could continue to acquire other Protagonist Templates and gain the physiques and memories of those protagonists.
As for how to accumulate Justice Points, the panel also provided a very detailed explanation.
That was to do righteous deeds. Each righteous deed, depending on its scale, could accumulate a certain amount of Justice Points. When Justice Points accumulated to a certain extent, he could randomly draw different Protagonist Templates.
Once a Protagonist Template was drawn, it would be permanently acquired. As long as each load ended, and he waited for the 24-hour cooldown to finish, he could continue to use it.
During the hour he loaded Son Goku, he also did many righteous deeds, and those were all settled for Justice Points.
As for what constitutes a righteous deed, according to the panel's explanation, it was simply anything he subjectively believed to be righteous in his heart.
For example, if he felt that killing a villain could save a group of people, then killing was also a righteous deed. If he felt that the President had committed a crime and killing him was righteous, then killing him would earn Justice Points.
Even if everyone in the World said he was wrong, as long as he believed it was righteous in his heart, then it was righteous.
However, if he killed this person merely because he unilaterally hated this person, then there would be no Justice Points earned.
Moreover, such righteous deeds must be done by himself personally; he couldn't use money, he had to act physically.
For instance, donating money to a charity foundation or giving money to beggars would not be considered righteous deeds. But if he helped an elderly person who had fallen, then that could be considered a righteous deed.
The prerequisite was that the elderly person couldn't swindle him, otherwise, only beating the elderly person would count as a righteous deed.
And one point that made him very satisfied was that his Justice Points would always only increase and never decrease. Doing righteous deeds would accumulate Justice Points, but doing evil deeds would not deduct Justice Points.
Of course, although he wasn't overly righteous, he also had his bottom line and wouldn't do anything too evil.
"No, it's no trouble at all. You truly are a sensible child."
Hearing that Hawking, at such a young age, was so sensible and spoke so politely, Elina, as a mother, immediately felt her maternal instincts overflow and embraced the still somewhat weak Hawking.
"Mom, me too!"
At this, Pietro, seeing the situation, became a little unwilling and immediately jumped onto the bed to join in.
Wanda, his sister born twelve minutes after Pietro, certainly wouldn't fall behind and followed her brother in for a hug.
Oleg, the father, put down the bread in his hand and embraced his wife Elina, children Wanda and Pietro, and Hawking in the middle, all together.
"Don't worry, everything will be alright!"
Hawking, held in the very center, also felt a slight touch in his heart at this moment.
He was forced to use this family to survive better, but this family seemed to genuinely regard him as a relative.
"It seems, not bad either."
From the time he could remember in his previous life, all he heard were his parents' endless arguments, even physical fights, and at their worst, they even used knives.
And they never avoided him.
Later, his parents divorced, and he became a burden, kicked back and forth like a football between them. When his parents each formed new families and had children, he was even more ignored.
So, frankly, he still felt a bit envious of such a loving family.
Although their life wasn't affluent, the family was always filled with laughter when they were together.
A week later, Sokovia gradually returned to normal order. Because too many people had died in the city, and there was a severe shortage of labor, Oleg and Elina both found tolerable jobs.
That day, as usual, they took Hawking to a special agency that dealt with missing persons.
"We are very sorry, due to the cursed war and missing city data, we cannot find any matching information for him. Furthermore, among the registered information for missing family members, there are no characteristics that match his.
Therefore, his parents and family have unfortunately likely perished in this war.
You can choose to send him to an orphanage, or you can choose to adopt him."
The plump female staff member explained to Oleg and Elina in the room with a very regretful tone.
A moment later, Elina and Oleg, with slightly reddened eyes, walked out of the room and came to Hawking, who was playing with Wanda and Pietro. They slowly squatted down and asked gently:
"Little Hawking, would you like to be our child, and be Wanda and Pietro's older brother?"
Hawking looked at Oleg, then at Elina, and smiled slightly:
"I would."
"I have a brother! I have a brother!"
Before Elina and Oleg could even speak, Wanda and Pietro had already cheered.
After a week of being together, they both really liked this big brother who took such good care of them.